Daily Fantasy Baseball Must Starts: Saturday June 23rd

Albert Pujols is an everyday stud, but he is joined by a few new members in the “must start” club for today’s action.

Value plays:

Andrew Jones – Typically I don’t encourage rostering players who boast a low average but hit for above average power, but Jones is worth a look today in daily fantasy baseball games today. He is batting only .214 against the Mets Chris Young, but all of his hits have left the ball park. Young has surrendered 24 hits in less than 18 innings pitched this year, and I expect the Yanks to have success against the rusty righty. With the fear of the powerful hitters around Jones, it is reasonable to think Young will go after him. The Mets starter isn’t a strikeout pitcher, meaning that Jones is likely to hit the ball hard in his plate appearances and drive in some runs.

Jonny Gomes – The Oakland left fielder has been heating up and is batting over .400 this month. One would think that opposing a solid young pitcher like Madison Bumgarner would give the right handed hitting Gomes some issues, but the opposite is true. He has recorded a hit in all 5 at bats against the Giants lefty, one of which cleared the fences. Gomes will come very cheap in all formats of fantasy baseball games due to the A’s owning the lowest team batting average in the bigs, but he is worth taking a flier on if you are pressed against your budget in a salary cap fantasy baseball game.

Torii Hunter and Albert Pujols – To say the Angels duo owns Chris Capuano would be a vast understatement. Hunter boasts a .500 career average against the lefty while Fat Albert has knocked him around to the tune of a .528 average and a HR every 7 at bats. The veterans lead an Angels team that has amassed a .462 career average and a .835 career slugging percentage against the Dodgers starter, making this the biggest mismatch of the day. With the ever inconsistent Ervin Santana opposing Capuano, this could be a game filled with fireworks.

Players to avoid:

Adam Dunn – The epitome of an all or nothing risk, Dunn comes up empty more often than not against Randy Wolf. The Dunn of old has returned after a n awful 2011 campaign, meaning that with every swing there are two possible outcomes: a screamer hit deep into the nights sky or a slow walk back to the dugout. The later is more likely against Wolf, as Dunn was struck out 3 times for every 2 hits he records against the Brewers starter.

Pittsburgh Pirates – Few things in the life of daily fantasy baseball owners are more frustrating than trying to forecast a Mad Max Scherzer start, but his recent hot stretch signals toward another quality outing against Pittsburgh tonight. Scherzer had one of his best outing of the season in his last start (8 shutout innings with 0 walks and 12 strikeouts) and dominated the Pirates a month ago (7 innings with 4 hits and 15 strikeouts). Pittsburgh is a good hitting ball club, but good pitching beats good hitting these days, and Scherzer is pitching well right now.